Judge Troubled By Undisclosed Pistol Evidence

December 30, 1999|By JOHN HOLLAND Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH — A federal judge said Wednesday he was disturbed that prosecutors never disclosed evidence that may have cleared hairdresser Jesse Briggs of conspiring to sell a gun and silencer to a notorious hitman.

Briggs, who was convicted in August, may have been able to use that information to convince jurors that he turned over the gun out of fear, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley said.

Schwartz said he never told Briggs' lawyer about that and other statements because they weren't relevant.

"I think you are slicing this issue awfully thin," Hurley told prosecutors. "I think you have an obligation to reveal evidence that is exculpatory and beneficial to the defense. I'm very concerned about the non-disclosure here."

Hurley will hear more testimony -- possibly from Hunwick -- this morning and is expected to rule today on whether to give Briggs a new trial.

Briggs was convicted of conspiring to sell the sophisticated weapon to Hunwick and then lying to Fort Lauderdale police by reporting it stolen. At trial, the owner of the Yellow Strawberry hair salon chain testified that the gun was taken from his car during a burglary.

That testimony was a lie, Briggs now admits.

Defense attorney John Contini said Schwartz also lied to Judge Hurley and to jurors during his closing arguments when he claimed that Briggs sold the gun to Hunwick. The indictment charges Briggs with the "sale and transfer" of the weapon.

But Hunwick specifically told Schwartz and other federal agents that he never paid for the gun, according to FBI notes.

After the hearing, Schwartz refused to comment on the apparent discrepancy between the FBI notes and what he told jurors. "I'm not going to talk about it, it was a long closing argument and I said a lot of things," Schwartz said.

Briggs' move for a new trial hinges on four statements by Hunwick that were written down by FBI agent Angela McCranie during a Feb. 19 meeting with Schwartz and a host of federal agents, Hurley said. They were interviewing Hunwick about dozens of unsolved killings and asked about the gun as a "test question," for his honesty, she said.

Hunwick is serving a life sentence on a variety of federal and state murder, drug and weapon charges.

McCranie's handwritten notes revealed some possible defense positions: that Briggs tried resisting Hunwick but was told he had to hand over the gun; that the menacing, barrel-chested hitman admitted giving an "implied threat'' to the hairdresser and that Hunwick said "I wouldn't let him say no."

Hunwick also said that Briggs was a "gangster groupie" who knew of Hunwick's notorious reputation, McCranie said. But none of that information was included in McCranie's report or given to Hurley and the defense team.

"That is what brings us here today, those four omissions of statements," Hurley said.

McCrainie said she consulted with Schwartz before finalizing her report. But she insisted the statements were only a small part of a long conversation with Hunwick focusing on his role in dozens of unsolved murders. It's ludicrous to imply that she or Schwartz hid anything, she said.

"After talking with Mr. Schwartz, I left the statements out because they just weren't true," McCranie said. "Mr. Hunwick said there was an implied threat, but when we followed up he specifically said he never threatened Mr. Briggs. I think the statements implicated Mr. Briggs, because they showed his story about the break-in wasn't true."

Defense lawyers said Hunwick's statements clearly show there was no conspiracy, but rather Briggs was the victim of a strong-armed robbery.

"Those four statements were left out as part of a sinister and calculating effort to deceive the court and to keep out information that would have shown Mr. Briggs innocent," Contini said.

Briggs' lawyers claim Hunwick had already stolen the gun and was trying to make money by selling it to the informer.

John Holland can be reached at jholland@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.